application of five elements

7/25/2019 Application of Five Elements

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Application of Five Elements

Applying this theory to the body is actually just a matter of

plugging in for the variables. Wherever you see an element, replace

it with it's corresponding zangfu organs. The examples below show

the zang organs.

Generating Cycle Controlling Cycle

This simple substitution is enough to explain how the organs

interact within the body. Oriental Medicine, being mostly a system

based on imbalances as the cause of disease, now has a second

form of pathology along with the yin-yang theory. The examples

below will make more sense as you read on and learn the functions

of the organs.

Application Examples of the Cycles


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1. One of the most common pathologies, as you will learn, is Liver

Qi Stagnation. This pathology is often accompanied by problems

with the digestive system. This is an excess of the liver. According to

this theory, the liver controls the spleen. If the liver is in excess as itis here, it will over-act on the spleen and interfere with it's ability to

transform and transport food.

2. Using the generating cycle, we see that the kidneys generate or

are the mother of the liver. You will learn later on that the kidneys

are the root of the yin of the body. Additionally, the liver stores the

blood of the body and is susceptible to deficiency of blood if too

much is used during the active hours. Since the kidney is the

mother of the liver, you can nourish the yin of the kidneys, to in

turn nourish the blood of the liver (as blood is part of the yin of the

body).

3. The heart controls the lungs. When the heart is in excess it will

over-act upon the lungs. Symptoms of heart excess are often

accompanied by shortness of breath and chest oppression, affecting

the ability of the lungs to control the airways.

Application Examples of the 5 Element Chart

Five Elements Metal

Seasons Autumn


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Environment Dry

ZangLung

Fu Large Intestine

DirectionsWest

Tastes Pungent

Sense Organs Nose

Tissues Skin and Hair

EmotionsGrief

Remember the chart that you saw on the previous page. Lets take

the element Metal as an example. Here you have a chart of

correspondences. If a patient comes to you complaining of anything

in the chart you attribute it to an imbalance in that particular

organ. If someone comes in and is in grief, has either skin issues or

dry and brittle hair, or maybe a pungent taste in the mouth,

you attribute the imbalance to the Lung. The same goes for the rest

of the organs.

In addition, the colors are important, which are noted by the color

of the cell in chart. The Japanese school of five phase, for example,

rubs the skin of the forearm and then looks to see a color shading.

If it was green for example, they would attribute imbalances to the

liver. If it was red it would be heart, pale white would be lung, yellowwould spleen and dark or black would be kidney. I think you get the

idea.


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Application Examples from the Nan Jing

In many chapters of the Nan Jing, particularly chapter 69, itdiscusses how to utilize the mother-son principle for tonifying and

reducing the elements to create balance. The general principle is to

tonify the mother in case of deficiency and to reduce the son in case

of excess. For example, if the liver is excess, you should reduce the

heart. If the kidney is deficient, you should tonify the lung and so

on.

If Deficient in ... Tonify

Spleen Heart

Lung Spleen

Kidney Lung

Liver Kidney

Heart Liver

If Excess in ... Reduce

Spleen Lung

Lung Kidney


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Kidney Liver

Liver Heart

Heart Spleen

Multitude of Possibilities

Okay, now to tie it all together here. So imagine, if you see a

deficiency in an organ there are a lot of possibilities as to what is

causing it. There is a good picture in Maciocia's Foundations of

Chinese Medicine book on page 32 that describes almost all of the

possible pathologies that any organ can have according to five

phase. Take a look to get a cool pictoral view. For our purposes, let's

take the spleen (earth) as an example here. The spleen is

susceptible to becoming deficient or attacked at least 4 different

ways.

The liver controls the spleen. If the liver is excess it can over-act on

the spleen.

The spleen controls the kidneys. If the kidneys are excess they can

insult the spleen.

The heart is the mother of the spleen. If the heart is deficient, it will

not have enough to nourish the spleen.

The lung is the son of the spleen. If the lungs are deficient, they

may drain too much from the mother spleen.


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Now you can see how complex diagnosing can become. If you take

into account the fact that there are 2 organs per element (four for

fire since the pericardium and triple warmer are both associated

with fire), at least 4 different ways for imbalance to occur per organ,you get a nice and easy 48 possible diagnoses to look at. Let's not

think that this is just one aspect of organ and body disharmony.

Don't worry, it gets worse :)

I have put the explanation of the zang/fu next. Usually a discussion

of the fluids and influences of the body come next in most texts but

I think this way will make it easier to understand the concepts of qi

and blood.

application of five elements

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